Busy pilot location in Berlin
Last December Card4Vend equipped the new self-service laundry at the Schlachtensee student village in Berlin for acceptance of international debit and credit cards. The installation of contactless-only readers (CORs) means that the roughly 1,000 residents of the student village can now also use the popular contactless girocard to pay at this modern laundry. SIX Payment Services worked at full stretch to put the conditions in place for launching the CORs. "We are delighted to have a partner like SIX that understands the payments business in Germany and is also a major player in acquiring in Europe. This enabled us to achieve our goal of being the first provider to equip unattended solutions with CORs," explain Anne and Arne Meil, the two managing directors of Card4Vend.
Besides technical network operation, SIX Payment Services is also responsible in this project for acceptance of international debit and credit cards. "With Card4Vend we are working with an expert partner in unattended solutions that brings with it the skills and experience needed to serve the complex vending machine market with our technical solutions," according to Panagiotis Karasavvoglou, Country Manager Germany at SIX Payment Services.
Advantages for vending machine operators and customers
In this first year since the introduction of contactless girocard in Germany, around one-half of all girocard terminals and 35 million cards are equipped for contactless payments. Both the outlets and their customers benefit from simpler, quicker payments and from increased security and convenience. During 2018, Card4Vend and SIX Payment Services will focus on installing more vending machine CORs in and around Kassel, the German Banking Industry Committee's pilot region. A rollout across Germany is intended for locations that are interested.